Kim Says He Is Open to Talks If US Drops Denuclearisation Demand

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he is open to talks with the United States if Washington abandons its demand that Pyongyang give up nuclear weapons. However, he vowed never to dismantle his country’s nuclear arsenal in exchange for sanctions relief, state media reported Monday.

“Personally, I still have fond memories of U.S. President Donald Trump,” Kim was quoted by KCNA as saying during a speech at the Supreme People’s Assembly on Sunday. Trump and Kim met three times during Trump’s first term in office.

Kim’s remarks come as Seoul’s new liberal government urges Trump to take the lead in reviving dialogue with Pyongyang, six years after talks collapsed over disagreements on sanctions and nuclear disarmament.

“If the United States drops its absurd obsession with denuclearising us and accepts reality, and if it seeks genuine peaceful coexistence, then there is no reason for us not to sit down with the United States,” Kim said.

It was the first time Kim mentioned Trump by name since his inauguration in January, according to Rachel Minyoung Lee, a North Korea expert at the U.S.-based Stimson Center. “This is an overture,” she said. “It is Kim’s invitation to Trump to rethink U.S. policy on denuclearisation, implying that if Washington abandons the demand, he would be willing to meet Trump face-to-face.”

Kim’s warm tone toward Trump stood in contrast to his firm declaration that he would never relinquish nuclear weapons or engage in dialogue with South Korea, which he labeled as North Korea’s “main enemy.” He stressed that building nuclear weapons was a matter of survival, citing regular U.S.-South Korea military drills that he described as rehearsals for nuclear war.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung told Reuters that Pyongyang was producing 15 to 20 nuclear bombs annually, and that even a freeze on production could serve as a first step toward dismantling the program. “Based on that, we can proceed to medium-term negotiations for nuclear reductions, and eventually, once mutual trust is restored and North Korea’s security concerns are eased, pursue denuclearisation,” he said.

Kim dismissed such phased approaches, insisting that Washington and Seoul’s outreach was insincere and aimed at weakening his regime. “The world already knows what the United States does after it makes a country give up its nuclear weapons,” Kim warned. “We will never give up our nuclear weapons.”

Kim added that years of sanctions had been “a learning experience,” making North Korea more resilient. Despite heavy U.N. sanctions since its first nuclear test in 2006, Pyongyang has advanced its nuclear and missile programs.

“The reality is that sanctions and pressure have not solved the problem; they have only made it worse,” President Lee told Reuters. He urged Trump to meet Kim during his visit to South Korea for next month’s Asia-Pacific summit.

Analyst Rachel Minyoung Lee, however, suggested Kim’s comments were also meant to sideline Seoul. “Perhaps he wants to get ahead of the Lee government and dissuade Trump from cooperating with South Korea by stressing that the nuclear issue is strictly between Pyongyang and Washington,” she said.

President Lee acknowledged that Pyongyang refuses to engage with Seoul and doubted that the U.S. and North Korea were holding substantive talks. Still, he argued that his phased plan was the only realistic path forward. “Our main task now is to create the conditions for dialogue,” he said.